Good Learning Co.
SavannahYear 8
← RSHE
RSHEMental wellbeing and getting help20 min★ difficulty

Mental wellbeing and what actually helps

Mental health is not the absence of difficult feelings. It is having enough support and strategy that difficult feelings pass through rather than settle in.

Lesson overview

What you'll learn in this lesson

Understand mental wellbeing, common difficulties and how to seek help

Key learning points

  • • Common difficulties
  • • What helps, reliably
  • • Asking for help

This lesson at a glance

  • 20 minutes
  • 16 parts to scroll through
  • 4 quick checks
  • Marked quiz at the end
  • Gentle pace: short sittings with pauses

Words to know

mentalwellbeingcommondifficultiesreliably

Scroll down — the lesson carries on below

Part 1 of 16 · Discover6%
1

Watch & discover

Part 1 of 16

Watch first

Mental wellbeing and what actually helps

An English teaching video on this topic from ClickView. Watch it, then scroll down for the lesson.

In a nutshell

Understand mental wellbeing, common difficulties and how to seek help

2

Learning cycle

Part 2 of 16

Learning cycle 1 of 2

Part 1 · Common difficulties

A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.

3

Explore the idea

Part 3 of 16

Learn

Common difficulties

Anxiety, low mood and stress are common in adolescence. They become a concern when they last for weeks, get worse, or stop you doing things you would normally do. That is a threshold worth remembering, because it replaces guessing whether a feeling is 'bad enough'.

4

Explore the idea

Part 4 of 16

Learn

What helps, reliably

Sleep, movement, daylight, contact with people, and doing something that occupies your hands or attention. Talking to one person you trust does more than most things. Avoidance gives quick relief and usually grows the problem.

5

Quick check

Part 5 of 16

Quick check

When is a difficult feeling worth raising?

6

Quick check

Part 6 of 16

Quick check

Which reliably helps wellbeing?

7

Reset break

Part 7 of 16

Pause

That's sitting 1 of 2 done

Stretch, get a drink, look out of the window. There is no timer and nothing is counting down — your place is saved, so you can come back in five minutes or tomorrow.

Stop here for now
8

Learning cycle

Part 8 of 16

Learning cycle 2 of 2

Part 2 · Asking for help

A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.

9

Explore the idea

Part 9 of 16

Learn

Asking for help

Start with a trusted adult: a parent, carer, tutor or school nurse. A GP can refer to services. Childline, YoungMinds and Shout offer confidential support. Being asked 'are you safe?' is a routine question, not an accusation.

10

Quick check

Part 10 of 16

Quick check

What does avoidance usually do?

11

Quick check

Part 11 of 16

Quick check

What makes a good opening sentence when asking for help?

12

Explore the idea

Part 12 of 16

Worked example

Worked example: naming it out loud

Instead of 'I'm fine', a usable sentence is: 'For the last three weeks I've been dreading mornings and I've stopped going to football.' It gives duration, feeling and impact — three things an adult needs to help, and it removes the need to diagnose yourself before you speak.

13

Challenge round

Part 13 of 16

Game · Sort it

Which of these are true?

Drag each card into the right column. Tap a card first if dragging is fiddly.

True

Not true

14

Challenge round

Part 14 of 16

Game · Fill the gaps

Finish the sentences

Choose the word that belongs in each gap.

Anxiety, low mood and stress are ____ in adolescence.

15

Mastery quiz

Part 15 of 16

Marked quiz

End of lesson quiz: Mental wellbeing and what actually helps

4 questions, marked with the reasoning shown. No timer.

  1. 1. When is a difficult feeling worth raising?

  2. 2. Which reliably helps wellbeing?

  3. 3. What does avoidance usually do?

  4. 4. What makes a good opening sentence when asking for help?

16

Lesson round-up

Part 16 of 16

Lesson round-up

Ready when you are

Quiz score

Not sat

Games

Not played

Points this lesson

0

Best run

0 in a row

Luna: 0 out of 4 on the practice checks. Only if you feel up to it — one more?

Ask Luna

Do the work

Your written work for this lesson

This is the part you'd do in your book at school. Pick the pieces below, write here or on paper, and photograph anything you draw or work out.

Case study

The group chat

Ellie is added to a class group chat with twenty-six people in it. At first it is jokes and homework questions. Then someone screenshots a private message from a girl in another class and posts it. Several people laugh. Two people leave the chat. Ellie says nothing, and feels bad about it that evening.

The next day the girl is off school. A teacher asks the class about the chat. Nobody wants to be the one who tells.

Staying silent can feel like the safest choice in the moment. It also leaves the person who was hurt on their own.

Written for Good Learning Co.

Reading questions

  1. What choices did Ellie have at the moment the screenshot was posted?
  2. Who could she tell, and what would each of them be able to do?
  3. Write what you would do in this situation and why, in 6–8 sentences.

  • Thinking it through

    Writing

    Write what you would do in this situation, who you would ask, and why.

    6–8 sentences

Saved as you type.

Part 1 of 16 · Watch & discover

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